BS: Amazon warning

Subject: BS: Amazon warning
From: Mo the caller
Date: 30 Oct 06 - 09:29 AM

On Friday I walked to the end of our long drive in the rain and found a soggy Amazon parcel leaning against the telegraph pole near the road.
The contents were ok but the box was disintegrating.
It was for my daughter, as she reckons there is more likely to be someone in if she has them delivered here.
She said it was hardly worth complaining as she'd had no reply to a previous complaint after a conversation with man delivering a £300 camera:
She "Glad I caught you, I was just going out"
He    "That's all right I'd have left it. We're allowed to leave Amazon parcels"

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Oct 06 - 10:30 AM

Some parcel delivery services are better (Or Worse) than others !

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Becca72
Date: 30 Oct 06 - 10:33 AM

It seems this is more of a problem about the delivery service than Amazon. When you choose the cheapest method of delivery it is sent "Ground" and there is no deliver confirmation required (per the Post Office). If you spring for the Express deliver it is either 2 day or overnight and they are supposed to collect a signature for these. So I guess if you don't want your Amazon purchases left out in the weather when no one's home then you will have to decide to pay more for shipping. I, personally, have all my Amazon purchases delivered to me at work where someone is always here Mon-Fri. I am also a seller on Amazon so I know how they ask us to ship items.

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Oct 06 - 10:41 AM

UPS left a multi-thousand dollar piece of electronic equpment on our front step one time; they were supposed to have gotten a signature from us for receipt. They are notorious for leaving stuff no matter the weather, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Rasener
Date: 30 Oct 06 - 10:48 AM

Don't buy electrical goods from them. If they are faulty, you will have one hell of a job, getting your money back. I had to threaten court action, before I got some joy.

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Oct 06 - 11:27 AM

Could be worse... Parcelforce (former UK Parcel delivery service run by the Post Office - don't know what they're called now...) once left a parcel for a friend IN her wheelie bin (trash can on wheels). She was lucky that the bin men had been the previous day and she is in the habit of checking what's in the bin before she drops her trash in on top....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: ranger1
Date: 30 Oct 06 - 11:37 AM

UPS is funny sometimes. They will leave anything on my neighbor's front step, in full view of the street, but I had to fight with them to get a package left in my hallway. They claim they can't leave items at apartments because of liability reasons, but it's ok to leave them in full view of the street at a single family residence. When I finally got my parcel, the perishable contents had perished.

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Oct 06 - 11:50 AM

I have heard of postmen signing the delivery form themselves and just leaving the packet on the doorstep.

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: MBSLynne
Date: 30 Oct 06 - 03:48 PM

I once complained about not receiving an item I'd ordered (Not Amazon). The company said they'd sent it and gave me the number of the parcel delivery service. They said they'd delivered it AND got a signature. I said they couldn't have, since I hadn't received it so they sent me a copy. Someone had certainly signed my name, but it wasn't me or even an attempt to forge my usual signature. I never found out what happened to the parcel or who it was who received it and signed for it.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 31 Oct 06 - 08:47 AM

I will never use UPS for delivery to Australia again.

They played football with a Camillo Piano Accordion sent from the USA - the wanker who turned up to inspect the damamge, denied that the obvious crushing on the padded carton was as a result of anything they had done. The main hassle was that the bass machine had popped most of the buttons - fortunately, they were able to be reset easily.

Even funnier, a couple of the chords sounded REAL BAD... the repairer discovered that some of the reeds had been installed in the wrong places - and judging by the state of the wax - apparently 'from manufacture'!!!!

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: jeffp
Date: 31 Oct 06 - 10:40 AM

I've been buying a few things on the internet lately, so they've been shipped mainly by UPS. We have a great UPS driver serving our neighborhood. I recently ordered some foul-weather gear at a sailboat show and it was shipped UPS. It arrived on a rainy day, so the driver put a large plastic bag over the box and left it on my doorstep. Don't want the foul-weather gear getting wet, do we?

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Wesley S
Date: 31 Oct 06 - 11:06 AM

UPS allowes their drivers a limited number of seconds - yes seconds - to deliver a package. It's no suprise that they dump things on front steps from time to time.

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 31 Oct 06 - 11:22 AM

Our local UPS drivers are pretty good about putting plastic bags around things if it even looks like it might rain - but they leave packages anywhere, from the front porch to randomly on the back deck to leaning against the garage door. Still, they seem to do a pretty good job here.

Certainly the problem described by Mo is with the delivery service.

Dan Schatz

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 Oct 06 - 03:23 PM

The biggest problem I had with UPS was when I lived alone and of course wasn't there to sign for stuff. At that time, unless the sender specified that they were permitted to leave it, they couldn't.

The problem was that, although they have a large warehouse in my town, they won't give you a local phone number. (And that's unchanged).

When I'd get the notice that they'd "attempted delivery" I had to call Kansas City, about 180 miles away. The Kansas City office would not receive a report on Wichita deliveries until after 6:00 PM when all the Wichita drivers returned from their routes, and they shut off the switchboard promptly at 5:00 pm in Kansas City.

If I called the next morning, I would be informed that the package was "on the truck" for redelivery and they couldn't stop it. Sadly, two attempted deliveries meant they immediately shipped the package back to the sendor - apparently before checking with Kansas City.

One package went back to the shipper three times before I finally managed to get someone at the local warehouse to "intercept" it for me. Threats of bodily injury (and four visits to the warehouse) were required.

UPS here apparently has not changed their procedures, but most shippers who use them appear to have learned that they must authorize the drivers to dump the packages without receipts.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Wesley S
Date: 31 Oct 06 - 03:36 PM

That's why I have everything delivered to the office.

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Amergin
Date: 31 Oct 06 - 04:13 PM

I bought a piglet riding toy once for my little girl....from Amazon...and bloody UPS left it on the bloody sidewalk....and I was HOME. Good thing I walked off the porch when I did....

Anyther time those wankers dropped off my dulcimer on the front porch in the RAIN. Luckily it was only the box that got wet.

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Wesley S
Date: 31 Oct 06 - 04:18 PM

UPS dropped off a National guitar on the front step of a local DJ/musician. It was picked up by a homeless guy and sold to a man in a bar who figured it was stolen. But it still took a few years for the buyer to track down the proper owner. He finally found a receipt for the repairs that National had done on it.

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Nov 06 - 11:52 AM

Hah! Re Parcel Force:
My mum is a bit of a Spooneriser if you know what I mean - and told us that the family bible was being posted off via "Postal Farce".
- only one of many wonderfully apt gems....... (she also barks at bankleys, and on the subject of independence advises "always cuddle your own poo")

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: CallyH
Date: 02 Nov 06 - 06:14 AM

Postal Farce is good, but cuddle your own poo? Huh?

puddle your own coo?
coo your own puddle?
coodle your own pud?
cud your own poodle?
cuddle your own poodle?


No, sorry, give up ...

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 Nov 06 - 08:50 AM

Paddle your own canoe....

Poodle your only cud?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: CallyH
Date: 02 Nov 06 - 09:48 AM

piddle in your own kazoo?

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: GUEST,memyself
Date: 02 Nov 06 - 09:56 AM

kid your own poodle?

kaboodle your own kid?

own your kit and kaboodle?

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Mr Red
Date: 02 Nov 06 - 04:40 PM

Several vendors do not have the insurance to send to other than the credit card holder's address, and carriers will only accept an attempt at delivery to leave a card for collection at the depot. And no re-direction.

Safe to the nth degree - but then no-one chacks your ID, the card is all they ask for.

Amazon.co.uk use the post office (when I used them anyway) and the PO will put through the letterbox or (again) give you a card for collection at the depot - or (for a small fee) you can designate a post office to go and collect.

My choice is to designate a work address - but that is not always an option.

None of this is ideal. But it is the world of the internet.

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Scoville
Date: 02 Nov 06 - 05:37 PM

Ha! I spent last week cursing the USPS for delivering stuff late until I discovered that our mail carrier had been hiding packages in the azalea in front of our house, where they would not be visible from the street. There were three boxes under there by the time I found them.

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: GUEST,barnacle
Date: 03 Nov 06 - 04:58 PM

I do most of my shopping online - most places will deliver to your place of work when a signature is required. Many e-bayers, however, will not so they have to go parcel post. My local post office hide parcels not requiring signatures in our woodstore and pop a not through the door to say that they have done so. However some carriers have left stuff on the doorstop. Luckily we live in a village and to date it has always been there when I got home.

As for Amazon, I have never had a problem and have always been sent replacements if things have not turned up.

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 04 Nov 06 - 05:57 AM

I have a sort of amusing UPS story...

I ordered a Key Lime cheesecake from Harry & David (scrummy food company for UKers who don't know) It was supposed to come frozen, 2nd day air. The package arrived at UPS on a friday afternoon and some genius decided it might stay frozen for 3 more days sitting in a 90 Degree wharehouse and they waited to deliver it on monday.

My UPS man is afraid of my dog (who has since died) and so he pitches all packages over the fence and up against my door, even the ones that say fragile. I have told him time and time again that if the front gate is onlicked and the front door CLOSED it means DOGGIE NOT IN YARD. Front gate LOCKED and front door OPEN means - DOGGIE IN YARD holler for me or ring bell at the gate. Well, of course that's too easy, right?

So, he has the thawed cheesecake and sees the gate unlocked and door closed. He winds up like Cal Ripkin and pitches the thing at the door with incredible force. The whole neighorhood hears an ungodly squelching sound as the spoiled cheesecake goes splat all over my door and slides down to the porch oozing it's foul contents complete with green key lime goo.

I opened the door and called him back and said "hey- see the writing on this package that says "FOOD, Perishable and the big words CHEESECAKE?" He says - "well, if it was frozen properly it would have been alright. You should complain to the Harry & David."

AAARGGGH

I eventually got my cheesecake replaced and now my UPS man hands me every package.

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: kendall
Date: 04 Nov 06 - 07:17 AM

UPS! Slowly I turn...step by step.. These are the clowns that dropped my Taylor and cracked it. I wouldn't ship an anvil with them again!

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 04 Nov 06 - 07:26 AM

Well - as far as UPS goes, if you pay peanuts...

Subject: RE: BS: Amazon warning
From: Cobble
Date: 04 Nov 06 - 07:38 AM

UPS must like me then 2 weeks ago had a digital camera delivered and a week after camera bag, no problems both on time. I live off the main road, first van had sat nav no probs and second van rang us to make sure he found us. Both drivers where very courteous, not everyone has problems,

                   Cobble